We Can't Just Walk Away
by VBreadergirl123
Summary: Bruce can't remember the last time he really, truly had a family. And now that they're gone, he will do anything to get them back.
1. Chapter 1

**And hello my lovely readers! This will be my first Avengers ****_story_**** (Demons is more of a character study), and it is a team-fic. All of them will be featured! I love these people so much, it's not even funny :) But anyway, for the sake of the story, Thor is currently in Asgard but will soon reappear. OH! And there will be NO SLASH. **

**I (unfortunately) DO NOT OWN THE AVENGERS**

**Enjoy!**

* * *

"I can NOT believe we lost that bet. There were _four _of us!" groaned Tony.

"Well, boys, you did, and now _I_ get to pick your movie," said Natasha with an evil look in her eyes.

"Oh GOD, she's going to pick something sappy like _The Notebook_, isn't she?"

"Yup," Clint answered in a resigned tone. He should have known better than to take the bet. All too often he had made bets with her about the movie choice and so far she had _never_ lost. "We're doomed."

* * *

"I bet between the four of you there is no way a single one of you can complete the cinnamon challenge."

"The _what_?" asked Steve.

"The cinnamon challenge," said Natasha with a smirk, "is where a person has one minute to eat a tablespoon of cinnamon without spitting it back out."

"And this is supposed to be...challenging?" Steve asked doubtfully.

"Oh, it's nearly impossible. There's no way you could do it," she said.

"Is that a CHALLENGE I hear?" Tony shouted over.

"Let's make it a bet, shall we?" said Natasha. "If _one_ of you manages to do it, then you guys can dye my hair any color you want." At this point, Tony's eyes lit up, and she knew she hit the bullseye. "If you _can't_, then I get to pick the film for your next boys movie night."

Tony, Bruce, Steve, and Clint looked at each other.

"Deal."

* * *

The next day was the night of the movie night. Natasha set up the kitchen with a seat for all of the boys, a tablespoon in front of each place. She set out a jar of cinnamon and put up a video camera, and waited for the fun to begin.

Tony wasn't even close. He decided to try and do it bit by bit, but by twenty seconds he was choking on a third of the tablespoon. Natasha smirked at his reaction.

Clint, being the daredevil, stuck the whole tablespoon in his mouth at once. He took forty five seconds to swallow some of it, but he couldn't keep it down and ended up spitting most of it out.

Steve was definitely the closest. He tried Clint's approach and managed to somehow swallow it all, which actually made Natasha nervous... until he felt sick and only just managed to get to a garbage can before he threw it all back up.

Bruce's reaction was by far the funniest. At least for everyone else. He tried Tony's strategy, but only got half of it in his mouth before he started choking and nearly hulked out on everyone. Natasha was dying of laughter.

Tony was frustrated. Cinnamon managed to get Bruce to hulk easier than he could.

* * *

The four men were sitting on the couch waiting for Natasha and coming up with all the possible chick flicks that Natasha might choose. So when she walked in holding a DVD of _Up_, they were more or less relieved.

"Really, Nat, that's the best you can do?" Clint asked dubiously. She shrugged and put the DVD in.

"Enjoy the movie, boys!" she called as she walked out.

The four of them were shedding very unmanly tears within the first five minutes.

* * *

**Alright, so that chapter was completely fluff. I promise there WILL be some action, and I believe it will be in the next chapter. I know what's going to happen, but it isn't written yet, so I will try and have it up by next weekend if not sooner (but ya know, with school and all...). Reviews might make it come faster, too, so PLEASE REVIEW!**


	2. Chapter 2

**WOW would you look at that! I seriously got writing here, because I've never updated this quickly before. Here's chapter two! As promised, there is much more that actually happens in this chapter, the first one was just some fluff to show how they were all "bonding" and such.**

**Once again, I do not own the Avengers, nor will I ever own the Avengers. *sobs***

* * *

"So we'll just be gone for three days. I need a little bit of time to make sure that the doctors who are taking over for me in Calcutta will be able to handle everything," Bruce said, loading his suitcase into Tony's car. Tony was driving him to the airport with Clint, who happened to be coming with him for "protection." Both ways, just in case whoever was in charge at Calcutta was so incompetent that Bruce lost it, because Tony had developed a sedative for his arrows and Clint was now one of the very few who was capable of taking the Hulk down.

"No problem, man, I'll leave a car for you at the airport just in case we're... _busy_," Tony said while wiggling his eyebrows suggestively.

"So if I come back and find you dead..." Clint started, looking at Tony.

"I probably pissed off Natashalie over there somehow."

"The problem would be if you two came back and you couldn't find any _evidence_ of me killing him," Natasha said with a pointed look at Tony.

"Yeah, yeah, yeah, everyone into the car." Tony insisted that everyone come along to the airport, claiming it was so they all got proper goodbyes, but Steve thought he just wanted to show off the private plane he was sending Clint and Bruce off in.

"How did _I_ pull the short straw and get stuck in the middle seat?" Steve complained. "Why isn't Nat— never mind," he said, being cut off by Natasha's evil look.

"I'd like to request that at least _one _of you that isn't Natasha manages to remain breathing for the three days that we're gone," Clint sighed.

"Like she hasn't almost killed you before," said Tony.

"The key word there is _almost._ Wait, Stark, are _you_ driving?"

Tony grinned as he jumped into the driver's seat. "Yup!"

"God, we're all doomed," muttered Natasha as Tony slammed on the gas and sped down the road at a totally-NOT-legal 120 miles per hour.

* * *

Tony, Natasha, and Steve waved at the plane they watched Clint and Bruce get smaller and smaller.

"All right, guys, so the two of them get back from Calcutta the same day Thor comes into town from Asgard, so we'll all get a big happy family reunion!" Tony exclaimed as they got back on the road.

"Stark," Steve managed to spit out as Tony continued his speeding, "where are we going? This is definitely NOT the way we came from."

"I know, I know," Tony said as he looked back at them, taking his eyes off the road with a grin on his face. Turning back, he said, "you know, I was thinking, something else I've never tried is falafel, so I found this falafel restaurant and we are going to eat."

"Stark, you know falafel is ground up chick peas, right?" asked Natasha.

"Yup, but I've never had it, and I'm driving, so that's where we are going!"

* * *

"My god, I can't believe you literally rented out the entire falafel restaurant," said Steve.

It was true. Tony paid everyone to leave so the three of them could eat without being ogled at the entire time. "Well, I don't know about you, but I wanted to eat in peace for once."

They chewed in silence for a while. The Avengers seemed to have a policy about food‚ a sort of "eat now, talk later" attitude that made for a lot of awkward dinners when one person would finish way before the rest, or everyone would be waiting on one person to finish (generally Steve, Thor, or Bruce). Finally, Tony and Natasha finished eating and commenced staring awkwardly at Steve while he ate to see who he noticed first. It was Tony.

"Well, what did you all think? Should we come here after our next battle?" Tony asked expectantly.

"I don't know Stark, this was really good, but the shawarma was hard to beat."

"Yeah, I know, but we should try to find something ne—"

A sharp _BANG_ cut him off as one of the walls fell away and what remained of the building began to fill with some sort of strange-smelling smoke.

Tony barely had time to start his surprised "what the hell?" when whatever was in the air forced him, Natasha, and even Steve into unconsciousness.

* * *

Steve woke up first to the blaring white lights of who-knows-wheres-ville. He sat up with a pounding headache and realized, much to his surprise, that not only were the three of them together in the same empty room, but none of them were bound, chained, tied up, or restrained in any way besides two of them still being passed out.

_Okay, now who have we made mad?_

As he stood up, he began asking questions in his head. _Am I poisoned? Are any of them poisoned? Why are we here? Where IS here? Who is holding us here? What do they even want with us? How the hell are we going to get out of here?_

"Cap, can you please shut up, my head is exploding over here, and if you keep talking I seriously think I might throw up," came Tony's conscious voice. Steve realized that he had started talking out loud and promptly stopped.

"God, who'd we piss off this time?" Natasha asked. She blinked into the bright lights, skillfully hiding her migraine. So everyone was awake and no one was dead or dying. What was the catch?

"I'd like to ask that you don't try and escape that room, the consequences could be very... _messy," _a voice spoke. Steve didn't recognize it, and neither did Natasha, but Tony was wracking his brain trying to remember who the voice was, because he'd _heard _it before, but only once or twice, and he might have been drunk but he can't remember but he knows, he _knows_ the voice is important and he just has to figure it out. "To put it simply, the room is lined with explosives and is being monitored around the clock. One wrong move and the three of you will be blown to bits," the voice continued.

Steve tensed, having seen a lot of people injured by explosives during the war. The voice seemed to notice, chuckling. "Don't worry, Mr. Rogers, they won't go off unless I'm sure I want them to. Just don't do anything stupid and we'll all remain alive."

"Are you going to tell us who you are?" Natasha shouted at the ceiling, not being aware just yet of where the speakers were.

"I'll let you puzzle it out. It seems Mr. Stark over there has almost got the answer."

At that point, Steve and Natasha turned back to look at Tony just as his eyes went wide with realization.

"Ross."

* * *

**Yay, cliffhangers! Sorry, guys, I know that was mean. Yeah, we won't see much of Clint and Bruce for a couple of chapters just because I don't think I can make up a whole lot about what they are doing. They are really just making sure everything is running smoothly, which it is. As you can see, the problem is back in America, not in Calcutta.**

**ANYHOO, it would make me INSANELY happy if y'all would possibly review this chapter with any of your thoughts. Pretty pretty please?**

**I'll try and have an update sometime soon, but anyone who has read my stories before knows that it doesn't always work. BUT I have a ton of ideas for this story so it might make me write faster. Or you know, if you review.**


	3. Chapter 3

**I am incredibly sorry this took longer than I was expecting to, but inspiration struck in the form of a oneshot I call Part of the Job Description, so I entreat you to go check it out for me. And to any of you who found this story because of that one, welcome!**

**So to the reviewers I missed from chapter 1 (because you posted after I updated...) THANK YOU! This means you, special agent Ali and Blonde Dragon! As for the rest of you, I KNOW you are reading this and I'd love to hear some feedback please!?**

**Anyways, I am SO excited for where this story is going. Still no Bruce, Clint or Thor in this chapter, but they'll be back soon, I promise! And by the way, I have not seen the Incredible Hulk, so I know very little about General Ross, other than what I've read/seen online, so let me know if I can do anything better.  
I STILL DO NOT OWN THE AVENGERS OR MARVEL**

**And without further ado, I present chapter 3!**

* * *

_Earlier..._

"Sir, Banner is leaving on Stark's jet with the archer."

"I TOLD you to bring him in, not watch him walk away!" Ross yelled at Jay Vincent, the man he had put in charge of bringing in Bruce. Apparently, Vincent could not get the job done right.

Vincent exhaled over the comm. "Sir, I don't think you heard me. He left on _Stark's_ jet, meaning a jet surrounded by more security measures than they even have at the White House. There was no possible way we could have gotten him."

"What about the rest of them?" Ross had no particular hatred for the rest of the Avengers, but they could be a means of getting Bruce.

"Thor's not here, and Stark, Romanoff, and Rogers are driving away at an insane speed, I think to go eat. I heard Stark talking about falafel."

"Then follow them and bring them in instead."

"Yes, sir."

Ross heard Vincent flip the comm off. He sighed. Why was it so hard to bring this man in? It wasn't as if he was totally unrecognizable, and he couldn't have people around him ALL the time. It was getting ridiculous. He'd put so much planning into this mission, and all his best agents can do is stand there and watch as Banner flies away to god-knows-where on Tony Stark's private jet.

Vincent better bring the rest of them.

* * *

_"Ross."_

The three captives' heads swiveled when they heard a metal window slide out of place in the door and saw General Ross's face peer through.

"Welcome, welcome. I'm sure by now you're all wondering why I've gathered you here," said Ross.

"Uh, isn't that something random people say in elevators to make everyone else uncomfortable?" Tony asked.

Ross rolled his eyes. "You are here because the three of you have a very close relationship to one _Bruce Banner_," he said, "and I will need your help finding him."

Natasha sighed. "What makes you think that kidnapping a super soldier, an assassin, and the world's richest man was a good idea? Not to mention drawing the wrath of SHIELD and Fury in its entirety?"

"I am not as dumb as you make me sound, Miss Romanoff. I had other plans, but seeing as Banner has disappeared for an unknown time to an unknown location, I need _you all_ to tell me where he is."

"And what makes you think we will tell you anything?" Steve asked, trying to push Ross's buttons enough that he'll give up some information.

"I'm asking you right now, aren't I? And if you refuse, well, my men and I can be... _persuasive,_" said Ross with a knowing look towards something the three of them couldn't see.

"Try me," Tony retorted.

"Are the three of you asking for it?"

Natasha, Steve, and Tony all turned their heads away from Ross, Tony making a show of zipping his lips and throwing away the key before doing so.

"Well, then I'm sorry for what's about to happen," said Ross.

The three of them heard a click, and then the lights went out and the room filled up with the same smoke as in the falafel restaurant, and once again they sunk into unconsciousness.

* * *

Steve came to tied to a chair in a very dull-looking room. Shaking away the pounding headache, he looked around. Besides being unable to move, he was unharmed. Unsurprisingly, Natasha was already awake, and Tony was in the middle of waking up.

Just as Tony shook himself awake, General Ross walked in, tailed by three large, mean looking men.

"You seem to enjoy knocking us out," Tony quipped. "Too bad we can't return the favor." The words were heavily laced with obvious loathing towards the man.

"Now, that was merely precautionary. These boys here," he nodded towards his accomplices, "are going to be helping me. I will make this simple. You have information I want, and I plan on getting it one way or another. You have chosen the hard way."

"You may have overlooked that you are dealing with three of the most stubborn people on this planet," Tony commented.

"Every hero has their breaking points," said Ross with a smirk. "Let me know if they decide to talk." With that, Ross walked out of the room, banging the door behind them.

One of the men, bigger than the rest with dark, oily hair, stepped forward. Steve could read on his face that he was trying to determine who would be easiest to crack first. He felt his stomach drop when his eyes rested on Natasha.

"Yance, go grab the pliers," the man said to the smallest of the three men, a blonde man with a near-permanent scowl on his face. He blundered off towards a the door. Turning back before walking out, he called back, "You want me to bring the shockers or the water, Vincent?"

The man, or Vincent as it seemed, nodded, and Yance left to go prepare... whatever it was he was doing.

"Hey, grease-head, I think before you start whatever it is you are going to start with the lovely Natasha over there, you should consider that if you piss her off, if she ever gets out she can and will kill you in less than four seconds without you ever actually knowing," Tony shouted, trying simultaneously to provoke Vincent and warn him off Natasha, not out of fear for the man, but despite knowing Natasha's abilities, he was still scared for her.

"Mr. Stark, I think I know what I'm doing," Vincent said calmly.

"Yeah, well the last time I said 'I think I know what I'm doing,' I nearly blew up the state of New York, so I'd be pretty afraid for your own well being right now."

"I'd also suggest shutting up now."

"You obviously haven't met me," Tony said right before Vincent stormed over and slapped him across the face. "Ooh, I'm scared now," Tony leered.

At this point, Yance walked in with the pliers and a long coil of what looked like black electrical cables. "Gravley, I'm going to need some help with the water," he said. Handing the pliers to Vincent, he and Gravely walked back out.

Vincent turned back to Natasha. "You know," he said with a seductive grin, "we don't _have_ to do things this way." Natasha's face remained completely blank. "If you just tell me where Bruce is, we can let you and your friends go." She remained silent. Speaking to all of them, he said, "If _any_ of you want to say something to relieve Miss Romanoff of any sort of pain, feel free."

Natasha turned to look at Steve and Tony, glaring a warning. They knew what she meant. _Don't you dare tell them anything. I can take this._ Tony's jaw clenched and Steve gave Natasha a curt nod.

Without a single flinch from Natasha, Vincent forced her mouth open and began working out one of her teeth. Natasha tensed, but didn't utter a single sound. Steve forced himself to remain silent. He wouldn't give Bruce away for Natasha, because she was stronger than anyone seemed to give her credit for. After pulling two teeth, Vincent rubbed salt in her wounds by punching her in the jaw. Her head jerked to the side, but through it all, she remained silent.

* * *

**OK, so maybe I like beating them all up. Bruce and Clint are still happily oblivious in Calcutta, Thor's still in Asgard, so the three of them are on their own for the moment.**

**SO if you could please maybe review, let me know what you think. I NEED FEEDBACK. If you have any suggestions, let me know, and I'll try and update soon!**


	4. Chapter 4

**Would you look at that, I'm just flying through this story this weekend! Thanks to all of you who reviewed my last chapter (**cough cough** MoonyTheAlchemist and VampireApple **cough cough**), you guys are awesome! I'm glad you liked it! **

**MoonyTheAlchemist, don't harm anything just yet, the update is here! And VampireApple: yeah, now we couldn't _permanently_ harm them, now could we? :) What would the fun be in that?**

**So here's chapter 4! Read and enjoy, my followers!**

* * *

_In Calcutta..._

"Man, those doctors seemed to take over your operation pretty fast," said Clint. "We can go home a day early!"

"Yeah, as long as Tony can get us the jet on time," Bruce said.

The two of them were back in Bruce's old little hut in Calcutta, packing up the few things that Bruce wanted to keep that he hadn't had a chance to bring back with him the first time. All he really wanted was a few photos and small gifts that a few of his patients had given him as a thank-you for helping them. Stuffing them in his duffel, he heaved his bag over his shoulder and headed out towards the Jeep where Clint was putting their bags.

Bruce hopped into the driver's seat. Normally he'd have let Clint drive, but he knew the roads out here better than Clint and preferred not to veer off of the road (he did that once—it wasn't fun). Meanwhile, Clint pulled out his cell phone and called Tony. After listening to it ring a few times, Tony's voicemail came over the phone.

_You have reached Tony Stark's personal cell phone. If you have this number, chances are I like you, so leave a message and if I'm not busy I'll think about calling you back. **Crash**_

Obviously Tony had been multi-tasking when he recorded this. Clint rolled his eyes and tried again. And again. Tony still didn't pick up. Finally, he just left a message. "Stark, Bruce and I are done a day early, so we're heading to the airport. If your jet isn't there when we get there I'm going to assume Natasha killed you and you were unable to get my message."

He hung up and kicked back in the seat, letting Bruce drive them to the airport.

* * *

General Ross walked back into what Steve decided was going to be their torture chamber just after Vincent punched Natasha in the face. He walked up to her and knelt down so he could look her in the eyes.

"You're stronger than I expected," he said, impressed.

"People always seem to get that impression," she replied, with almost no sign that her mouth was hurting. Steve assumed she must have had this happen to her a lot to get used to it, but he could tell in her eyes that no matter how often she had teeth pulled, it was still going to hurt.

"Why on _earth_ are you defending a monster?" Ross asked, partly exasperated and partly out of genuine curiosity.

"Despite what you think, _General_, Bruce is not a monster. I am not afraid of him. And I can tell you right now that you will hurt me ten times more in the next few days than Bruce ever will in his entire _lifetime_."

Ross sighed. "Obviously this one has had too much interrogation training," he said to Vincent. "When Yance and Gravley get back, try Stark. Right now, you can try the Captain. See if you can get one of the others to say something."

Vincent nodded, and picked up the electrical cords that Yance had brought him earlier. Tony's eyes went wide, and Steve figured it out a few seconds later. Vincent plugged the cords into the wall, and wrapped them around Steve's arms a few times before finding a place that they hooked into the chair. He pulled a remote control out of his pocket.

"Feel free to spare your friend," he said to Natasha and Tony as he hit the button.

To his credit, Steve didn't scream. He crumpled up on itself as much as it could being tied to a chair, and he felt what felt like hot knives coarse through his entire body. He writhed in the chair, hoping beyond anything and everything that it would stop because everything was on fire and everything was hurting beyond any pain he ever knew and it just had to stop and someone was screaming his name and as soon as it started, it stopped again. Steve breathed heavily, wishing he could just pass out right there.

But not once did he make a sound.

After a brief, ever-to-short reprieve, Vincent hit the button again and the pain started all over. _This must be what hell feels like_, thought Steve as the currents ripped through him. His body spasmed, and he couldn't feel his limbs, and he just wanted it to stopstopstopstopstop.

And finally it did. And he could hear Tony's voice but he couldn't make out what he was saying. It sounded like something along the lines of 'I have something to tell you but I won't say a word until you stop.'

He opened his eyes, and through his blurry vision he saw Natasha trying to glare Tony into silence. Unfortunately, Steve knew that was a lost cause—nothing could make Tony shut up if he didn't want to.

Tony, on the other hand, looked incredibly relieved that they had stopped electrocuting Steve and desperately trying to come up with something to tell Vincent and Ross that wouldn't give away too much.

"Well, what is it you have to say?" Vincent asked impatiently. Ross, too, was clinging to every word Tony would say, knowing it would lead him to Bruce.

As Tony calmed himself down, he looked straight at Ross. "Listen, you bastard. I know I'm not the only one who knows where Bruce is. All three of us do. But I know something else—something Steve and Natasha don't. And I swear if you touch either of them one more time I won't tell you a single word of what I know."

Steve's eyes widened. Was Tony bluffing? Or did he really know something else, and if he did, why would he tell Ross?

Ross's curiosity got the better of him. "What do you know that could possibly be worth my time?"

"Before Bruce left, he and I were working on a formula. A formula for a sedative strong enough to knock out the Hulk. I know for a fact that no such sedative exists on the _planet_ right now, but I know how to make it work, and if you touch them again you will never know how to make it."

Neither Steve nor Natasha were aware that he and Bruce had been working on this project until now. _But why the hell would Tony let Ross know that he was working on this? If Ross gets ahold of it, he would literally have a way to control the Hulk._

"And if I agree not to harm your two friends, will you tell me what the formula is?"

"I'll agree to let you try to _make_ me tell you what it is," Tony said with a self-confident looking grin—a mask, Natasha knew—"but, as I said before, I'm one of the most stubborn people I know. Also one of the most attractive, and smartest, and I'm much better at hospitality than you and your goons are, and..."

As Tony continued antagonizing Ross and his goons, Steve came to a realization. Tony was smart, he wouldn't keep picking fights with people if he knew that it would hurt him without cause. He wouldn't give away vital information without cause. He was doing it because, at this point, he didn't care if HE got hurt, so long as he drew the attention away from Steve and Natasha.

The man was a genius. An idiot sometimes, but a genius nonetheless.

Ross let out an annoyed sigh and slapped Tony across the face. "All right, fine. My men and I will refrain from harming Miss Romanoff and the good Captain, but that means we can spend much more time _persuading_ you, is that correct?" Tony nodded. "Fine then. Vincent, please take the other two back to the room."

Vincent lifted Steve and Natasha's chairs onto a rolling cart to transport them to what Tony had dubbed "Boom Town," where they would most likely be knocked out again before they were untied. As he walked towards the door, Yance and Gravley pushed it open, heaving a large tub of water between them and carrying it over towards Tony.

As Steve and Natasha were wheeled out the door, Natasha looked back at Tony to see his eyes zero in on the tub and widen—almost imperceptibly to anyone who didn't know him. She could practically hear his thoughts immediately think back to the last time he was forced underwater.

_Oh, no_.

* * *

**I'm sorry, that was mean.**

**So, we got to look at Clint and Bruce coming home early. Hopefully they (and Thor, when he arrives) will storm into Ross's lair and save the day, right? We'll see... :) Anyway, I will try and update soon, but, as you can see, it is quite hit or miss as to how fast I will write :)**

**Sound off in the reviews about what you think of this chapter, please!**


	5. Chapter 5

**Woohoo! Thanks to all my awesome readers! Shout-outs to the guests who reviewed, and ****Tomb8y1084629, ANimATion ImAgInAtIoN, VampireApple, and MoonyTheAlchemist for reviewing! I'm glad you all like the story so far! I'm wondering what you all think of my writing Ross, because I have not seen Incredible Hulk or read the comics, so I have no clue what he's like. I hope he's relatively in character...?**

**So anyways, here's chapter 5, and as a reminder, I still do not own any of this (except for the three characters I made up I suppose, Vincent, Yance, and Gravley). READ AND ENJOY!**

* * *

"Tony still isn't picking up his phone," said Clint from the car. Whether or not Tony had gotten their message, his jet was still waiting for them at the airport, so they were able to go home. They had tried calling a few more times after they had landed—and _on_ the plane, because Tony's plane had excellent signal. None of them had answered. And despite Clint's joking that Natasha had killed the boys and was currently trying to hide their bodies, resulting in her being unable to answer the phone, he was getting nervous. Bruce was driving again because Clint had had a drink on the plane, and Bruce wouldn't let him drive _even though_ he wasn't drunk and was perfectly capable of passing any test Bruce threw his way to prove it.

Bruce had just pulled up to the Avengers Tower, as Tony liked to call it. He was excited to get back to the labs because, let's face it, it really _was_ a scientist's Candyland. And, he really did miss the team. Almost more than he was expecting.

"I could have driven," Clint grumbled as he pushed open the door to the passenger's side.

"Yes, but I prefer to drive in a car that does not risk unleashing the Hulk through reckless driving," Bruce responded with a grin.

"You have to admit, I would have done better than Ton—"

_Thwick._

Clint dropped to the ground, a dart sticking out of his neck. Bruce leapt out of the car and ran around to Clint's side, struggling to maintain control of the Other Guy. Releasing him now would do no one any good because he had no idea what was going on.

"Dr. Banner, so good to see you," said a man who was standing a little ways behind Clint—far enough to shoot a dart into his friend's neck. "My name is Gregory Yance, and my employer would like to have a meeting with you."

Fighting for control, Bruce managed to ground out a response. "And who just might that be?"

Yance walked up to Clint's still body and held a gun—a real gun, not a dart gun—to his head. "His name is General Ross. I assume you remember who he is?"

"Yes," Bruce growled.

"I will offer you a simple deal: come with me now, and your friend lives. If not, he dies. Your choice."

Bruce didn't even hesitate. "Fine. Just put him back in the car—don't leave him lying on the ground out here."

Yance shoved Clint back into the car and slammed the door. He then signaled to Bruce to follow him, and Bruce walked behind him towards the car that would take him to the one man he had hoped he'd never see again.

* * *

Steve and Natasha groaned their way back into existence and found themselves back in Boom Town. They were so freaking tired of getting knocked out by these stupid men who thought they were going to get information about one of their best friends out of them—

"Oh, God, Tony's still back there, isn't he?" asked Steve.

Natasha nodded, and then proceeded to fling out every colorful curse she knew in over seven languages. "God, Steve, we have to get him back. He is _never_ going to be able to sleep again after this! Crap, you don't have his whole file, do you?"

"No, but why is that—"

"When Tony was taken to Afghanistan, and the terrorist organization wanted him to build those bombs, he refused. Then they dunked his head underwater over and over, which is exactly what they are doing to him _right now_, and he already had PTSD and now it's just going to get worse!"

* * *

_Come on, Tony, hold your breath, just a little longer..._

Vincent yanked Tony's head back out of the water by his hair, giving him only about a second to breathe before shoving it back under. Struggling to keep his memories under control, Tony started counting.

_1, 2, 3, 4_

Memories leaked out from his brain—people shouting in a language he didn't understand, unbearable pain in his chest, deafening explosions—

_5, 6, 7, 8_

—a surgery without antiseptic or sedatives or _anything _to make it hurt just a little bit less, racing against time to build the one thing that could save him and kill him, bright lights_—_

_9, 10, 11, 12_

—men shoving his head underwater to the point of where he couldn't breathe, the car battery in his chest sparking when it got splashed—

_13, 14, 15, 16_

—Yinsen saving his life, Yinsen almost having a hot coal shoved down his throat, Yinsen keeping him fighting, Yinsen _dying_ right before his eyes—_  
_

_17, 18, 19, 20_

And he was pulled back out and shoved back under again.

_1, 2, 3, 4, 5..._

* * *

Clint blearily blinked his eyes open. _Was I really drunk this time?_ Looking around, he found himself sitting in the car he had been in when he and Bruce were on their way back to the tower. Bruce was gone.

_Bruce was gone_.

It wasn't like the doctor to leave him out in the car—normally he'd have someone (normally Steve) come out and carry him inside (not that he got drunk _that_ often, it was one time, okay!). Struggling to recall what had happened, he remembered getting out of the car and watching the world fall away from him. Rubbing his neck, he felt something sticking in it that was not supposed to be there. He plucked it out and held it up: a dart, probably one with sedative.

So where was Bruce?

Getting out of the car slowly, in case the sedative was still affecting him, he walked into the Tower and into the elevator, pressing the button for the common floor. Someone had to tell Tony and the others what happened so they could find Bruce.

_Ding_.

The elevator stopped and Clint stepped out into the room, fully expecting Tony, Steve, and Natasha ready to greet him and Bruce for getting back early. But there was no one there except for a God of Thunder sitting on Tony's couch eating poptarts.

* * *

_Finally_, they yanked Tony's head out of the water. He didn't even know who was actually doing the yanking anymore, he was just grateful for air, air, air.

"You are a tough egg to crack, Mr. Stark," a voice said. _Oh, right. Ross_.

"And _you_," Tony slurred through the water he was trying to cough up, "are a brainless jackass who doesn't understand what it means to _actually_ have a friend in life." _Slap_. Ross's hand slammed into Tony's face. Tony laughed, a cynical, humorless laugh that didn't reach his eyes and scared anyone with a heart. "You want Bruce because you think he's a monster, that he doesn't have any control over his emotions. I don't think you understand how IN control Bruce is. I make one comment to you and you slap me in the face, but it takes so much more to make Bruce angry. I mean, for crying out loud, he deals with ME everyday! Of everyone in the world, he's probably the _most_ in control. We all fight the same battle Bruce does, his just happens to be more visible."

Ross let out an annoyed grunt and punched Tony in the face once more for good measure. "One day, you'll regret standing up for that monster," he hissed. Signaling over his shoulder to Vincent, he stormed from the room.

Vincent wrenched Tony out of the chair and nearly dragged him back to Boom Town, knowing he'd be way too exhausted to try and fight back after an hour and a half of water boarding. He unlocked the door and threw Tony inside for his teammates to deal with.

Tony was still dripping when he got there.

* * *

**Another chapter down, yay! I feel like these chapters are continuously getting longer, what do you think? I hope you all enjoyed some Hawkeye and Bruce action, and we even got a glimpse of Thor! **

**Leave me a review to let me know what you think? Pretty pretty please?**


	6. Chapter 6

**I just want to thank everyone who gave me advice on how to write General Ross, especially MoonyTheAlchemist and ANimATion ImAgInAtIoN, because I really had no clue what I was doing. He isn't in this chapter so much, so you'll see him next chapter, but I hope he's relatively in-character.**

**So here's chapter 6! Read & Enjoy, my followers :)**

* * *

"Clint Barton!" Thor's booming voice pulsed through the entire room. "Where are the rest of the Avengers?"

"I don't know, man, I just woke up. Apparently someone knocked me out and took Bruce and we've gotta find him!" Clint's voice raised to a shout as he started panicking. His friends could _not_ be gone, not after he finally found a team that he could actually get along with. They were getting them back.

Their heads perked up as the phone rang. Knowing Thor probably had no clue what to do (he really hasn't been on Earth all that long), Clint picked up. "Yeah?"

"Barton, is that you?" Fury's voice on the phone. At least one other person wasn't missing. "Have you seen your team? I can't get ahold of any of them." He sounded urgent. That couldn't be good.

"Well, Thor's right here, but that's it. Bruce disappeared from the car as we were getting out because someone managed to hit me with a sedative dart, but I haven't heard from Steve, Tony, or Natasha since before we left Calcutta." Colorful swearing came over the other line.

"To whom are you speaking, Clint?" Thor asked. Clint mouthed _Fury_ over to Thor and kept the conversation going.

"Fury, do we have any way to track _any_ of them?"

"Barton, believe me, we're trying. Someone's scrambling the signals from the tracker inside Stark's reactor—he told us he'd been kidnapped too many times to not put some sort of homing device in it. We're working on unscrambling it and we'll call you when we find out. Until then, you and Thor sit tight, and for the love of all that is holy, _do not get kidnapped_."

* * *

General Ross stormed into the meeting he called, incredibly frustrated. He glared around the room at Vincent, and Gravley. "Where's Ellings?"

A thin man with round glasses and a permanent scowl on his face came in at that moment. "Right here, sir."

Ross sighed. Richard Ellings. He hated the man—he honestly drove him insane. Ross needed him, though. If anyone would be able to alter the so-called sedative that Tony Stark claimed to know about, it would be Ellings. He turned to Vincent, the man he had put in charge of the interrogations. "Anything?"

"No, sir, Stark is incredibly stubborn, and—" he stopped as Ross slammed his hand down on the table.

"We _have_ to get that formula out of him. I'd say try and use the rest of them as a weakness, but that will only make him more resistant."

"I know, sir. I'm leaving him alone for tonight because if I try any more, he might be permanently hurt and then we'd get nothing out of him," Vincent ventured, "unless you _want _me to keep trying?" Vincent hoped he'd say yes.

"No, no, we need him to be able to actually give us useful information." Vincent deflated inside. "Give the three of them food for the night, and we'll try again tomorrow. Try whatever you did to Rogers—it seemed to exhaust him, and he's a super-soldier. It should be enough to get info out of Stark."

* * *

The slot on the door opened, and one of the guards shoved a couple trays of food through. "Dinner," he said gruffly.

Steve stood up and went to go get it. Tony had passed out after he was thrown into the cell with them after coughing up a good bit of water, and Natasha had his head resting on her lap. In any other circumstances, Steve would have laughed, but Natasha really did care about Tony. In a complete brother-sister kind of way.

Steve was worried, too. He had no idea that Tony had been tortured in Afghanistan because the man had removed it from his file. He had dealt with soldiers who experienced the same problems, though, and some did not handle it well at all. He carried the trays over to Natasha and set them down on the floor. "How is he?"

"I think he's just asleep, now. He was exhausted after whatever they did to him." Her jaw clenched, and she stuffed a piece of bread into her mouth before she remembered her missing molars. She winced, and Steve passed her some water. "Don't hurt yourself," he said. Natasha scowled, and Steve shook his head. Despite how strong she is, she isn't invincible.

Natasha looked down when she heard a groan and saw Tony's eyes blinking up at her. He gave a half-hearted grin. "Hey there, Spidey. How long was I out?"

"Couple hours, just enough time passed for them to bring us dinner. At least, I'm pretty sure it's dinner."

"How're your teeth?" She rolled her eyes. "And how's the human lightning rod over there?"

Steve smiled despite himself. "Fine over here, just tired. You hungry?" Tony nodded, and Steve passed his tray over there. Tony sat up slowly and started eating.

Natasha continued trying to eat her bread without touching the spots where her teeth were _supposed_ to be, and watched Tony silently. The usually mischievous glint in his eyes was gone, replaced by something... empty. He didn't look defeated, because he was still fighting for his friends. He just looked tired. Like he'd gone through this one too many times. It made Natasha sad, because of everyone, Tony was the least trained for this.

When they finished eating, they were well and truly tired. Steve was the first to pass out, lying on his stomach with his head on his arms to block out the light that probably wouldn't turn off. Natasha was next, falling asleep using Steve's back as a pillow and lying on her back—used to interrogations with bright light, she could completely ignore the fact that the room was not remotely close to being dark. Tony was last, considering he was the only one who got to nap. He fell nodded off curled up in a ball on his side, head resting on Natasha's leg and wedged right in-between Steve and Natasha.

* * *

**So that chapter was definitely shorter than some of my others, but next chapter is when more stuff is actually going to happen. This one was sort of fluffy (as fluffy as a kidnapping can be). **

**I'd love it if you all would possibly leave me a review? Pretty please?**

**But anyways, I will try and update sometime soon :) Thanks for reading!**


	7. Chapter 7

**Guys, I'm so excited! Thank you so much for all the reviews, I'm glad you all are liking the story so far :) Thanks again to everyone giving me advice on how to write General Ross, hopefully you'll get to see more of him in this chapter. Let me know what you think!**

**In celebration of the long weekend, I managed to finish another chapter. So without further ado, I present to you chapter 7!**

* * *

The three Avengers woke up suddenly to the banging open of a door. Vincent walked in with a vicious grin on his face. He strode over to them and grabbed Tony, yanking him out of the room still half-asleep before Steve or Natasha could do a thing about it. They scrambled up just as the door slammed shut.

"Dammit, dammit, dam—" Natasha started, but was promptly cut off as Steve dropped to his knees. "Oh, God, Steve, are you okay?"

"Yup, just dizzy," Steve said, shaking his head to try and clear away the fog. "I think it's just from whatever they did to me yesterday." Natasha took a breath. "Nat, what are we going to do?"

She turned to stare at the door where Tony had just exited. "I don't know."

* * *

The apparatus on which Tony was attached was slightly different than the one used on Steve. Because he did not have super-abilities, Vincent knew he couldn't electrify the entire chair, so he left Tony standing up with the cords around his wrists. and plugged into the wall. This time, Vincent wasn't the only interrogator there, though—Ross wanted to be there.

Ross walked up to Tony. "Now, what can you tell me about that formula?"

Tony, for his part, was incredibly good at masking how scared he was. "Well, I can tell you that you'll never find out what it is."

Ross nodded over at Vincent, who flipped the switch. Tony squeezed his eyes shut, clenched his mouth shut, and nearly curled in on himself as the electricity pulsed painfully through him. When it stopped, what Tony thought was an hour was really only about thirty seconds. Breathing hard, he looked back up at Ross and made a show of keeping his mouth shut. "You are making this incredibly hard on yourself," Ross sighed.

Vincent turned on the current again, and this time Tony couldn't keep himself from letting out a strangled scream. Everything hurt—more than hurt, everything felt like it was unravelling, he felt like he was falling apart and he could feel the electricity starting to spark on his reactor, and—

And then it just stopped. That time had been longer than the first, and Tony couldn't get his thoughts together. Everything was fuzzy. _Was this how Steve felt yesterday?_ he wondered. He could hear Ross talking with someone, but he couldn't understand what he was saying.

"—thank you, Yance, you can bring him in."

Tony blinked open his eyes and everything was blurry. He could make out the forms of someone standing next to him, and someone standing by the switch that turned on the electricity—Ross and Vincent—but there was a third figure standing at the door, not moving, and he didn't know who he was.

"Ah, Dr. Banner, so glad you could make it."

And that third figure was running across the room to crouch down by Tony, who at first couldn't connect the dots. _Dr. Banner...? But Bruce isn't here, he's in Calcutta. _He could hear someone trying to talk to him, but he didn't know what they were saying.

And as Tony's world finally came back into focus, he saw Bruce's eyes looking down at him with concern, lined with green. "Bruce...? What're y'doin here?" Tony slurred.

* * *

When Bruce had walked in and saw his best friend collapsed on the ground hooked up to what looked like electrocution wires, he very nearly lost it. He ran over to Tony, who didn't seem to be able to focus on anything. "Tony, Tony, look at me, god are you okay, come on Tony, look here."

And finally Tony was able to focus his eyes on Bruce, who almost fainted with relief. "Bruuuce wha're y'dooin here?"

If Tony had been drunk instead of nearly electrocuted to death, Bruce would have laughed. Instead, he glared up at General Ross, who had been standing right next to Tony. "What the HELL are you doing?"

Ross glared at him with undisguised hatred. "Mr. Stark here has refused to cooperate, so we have resorted to using other methods to get him to do so. Unfortunately, your friend is very stubborn. We haven't done anything _too _harmful."

Bruce looked at Tony's wrists, where the electricity had burned him. Ross obviously had a different definition of "too harmful." "Let him go. Let him go right now," Bruce said, taking a threatening step towards Ross.

"Now, now, you wouldn't want to lose control here, now would you?" Ross said, a note in his voice implying he knew something Bruce didn't.

"You can't hurt me," he said.

"No, but I _can _hurt your other friends," Ross replied, "and then it would be all your fault."

Bruce's heart plummeted. "Other friends. _Who else is here?_" he asked desperately.

Ross didn't reply right away. "Dr. Banner, if you would follow me, we can return Mr. Stark to his room and you can see the others, assuming you can control yourself long enough," he said. Vincent untied the cords around Tony and nearly dragged him from the room. Ross walked away behind Vincent, and Bruce followed, terrified of who Ross might have.

* * *

Steve and Natasha looked up in relief as Tony was thrown back into their room. Steve caught him as he stumbled in and nearly fell over. He was about to ask if Tony was okay when he heard a strangled gasp. He looked up.

Bruce Banner was standing in the doorway next to General Ross, staring at them, horrified.

"As you can see, Dr. Banner," said Ross almost gleefully, "it would not be wise for you to step out of line. As your friends so affectionately call it, 'Boom Town' will blow up if they misbehave. Or if you do, as well."

Bruce couldn't tear his eyes away from his friends. He was going to throw up. He thought they were _safe_, they weren't supposed to be here.

Steve's heart sank when he saw Bruce turn to look at Ross. "What do you need me to do?"

Ross smiled. And he closed the door.

Steve set Tony down on the floor so he wouldn't fall over again. He looked at Natasha, who looked about ready to commit murder. She would have murdered Ross in a second if it wasn't going to get her friends killed.

"How did he get Bruce?" Natasha asked in a quiet voice. "Tony, you didn't tell him, did you?" Her voice got higher at the end of the sentence, as if she couldn't believe she even had to ask the question.

Luckily, Tony was coherent enough to answer questions. "NO! I didn't say a _word_. I have no idea how he got here, I just know they turned off the electricity and then I was looking at Bruce."

Natasha relaxed, relieved Tony didn't say anything. But she tensed up again when another thought occurred to her.

_Clint_.

* * *

Clint was, at that point, raiding Tony's fridge for something to eat. So he was a nervous eater. Sue him. Okay, not really. He was a _restless_ eater. Which still wasn't good, because between Thor and Clint, Tony wasn't going to have any food left in his kitchen.

At that next moment, the elevator door opened. Clint couldn't help thinking _Natasha_, but he saw Pepper Potts walk in, escorted by Nick Fury.

Pepper ran up to Clint and enveloped him in a hug. "Clint, thank god you're okay. Fury told me what happened." She looked up at him, and he could tell she had been crying earlier.

"Don't worry," he said, more confident than he felt, "we're going to find them again. We're going to bring them back. Fury, how's the unscrambling going?"

* * *

Wes Gravley was walking down the hall when he nearly ran into Yance. "Sorry, man, I wasn't paying attention," he said. Then he remembered he had a question. "Hey, are Ross and Vincent making you nervous at all?"

"No," Yance said, "Ross is always like this when it comes to Banner. He hates the man. I think something happened between him and his daughter. As for Vincent, he has some personal vendetta against Stark. Don't ask me, I don't know, but Vincent would kill the man if Ross gave him the chance. You bringing the food down to the cell, or am I?"

"I can," said Gravley. "That's what I was doing anyway." He continued down the hallway as Yance went the other way.

Either way, Gravley was still worried. Ross was acting like one of the men who protected their world was a bigger threat than was worth it. If that was true, what did that say about the other people protecting them? Does that make the military a risk, too?

_Bruce Banner_. He had heard someone else say that name before, but say it in a different tone—a tone of admiration. _Think, think_. A lightbulb went off in his head, and he pulled out his cell phone. He scrolled through the contacts until he found the one he was looking for.

Betty Ross.

He dialed her number, and once she picked up, he began without preamble, "What can you tell me about your dad and Bruce Banner?"

* * *

**Wow, I am seriously on a writing roll this weekend! I'm sorry I left you all with that cliffhanger, but I thought it was a good stopping point (not really :) I like ending things with cliffhangers).**

**SO! I hope you liked it. I hope Ross was relatively in-character. Leave me a review and let me know! Thanks for reading!**


	8. Chapter 8

**Guess who should be doing homework? This girl. But I had this chapter finished a couple days ago and I really wanted to post it. So yeah.**

**THANK YOU SO MUCH TO ALL OF MY REVIEWERS! You guys make me so excited to keep writing I JUST LOVE YOU ALL SO MUCH! Anyways... I'm sure those of you reading this story are (hopefully) anxious for its next chapter, so in honor of a Thursday night, here be chapter 8!  
**

**(I still don't own Marvel)**

* * *

General Ross could not contain his excitement when he got word from Yance that he had located Bruce Banner. He was ecstatic when Yance was able to bring him in.

Ross led Bruce down a long hallway towards the lab room where Ellings should be working on trying to come up with some sort of sedative. So far, his work had been unsuccessful, so either Stark was bluffing or Ellings was stupid.

When they got to the door of the lab, Ross opened the door and shoved Bruce inside. Bruce had been silent the entire time, dealing with the fact that the man who wanted him dead had his friends in custody. Ross smiled smugly at Ellings when the scientist dropped his clipboard in shock at seeing Bruce.

"Mr. Ellings, I assume everything is prepared to start tests on Dr. Banner?" he asked, with a look in his eye that said _you better say yes_.

"Yes, sir. Dr. Banner, if you would come this way, please. You don't need to stay, sir, if you don't want to."

Ross rolled his eyes inwardly, but went to leave all the same. "Oh, and Banner, one wrong move..." he left the end open for Bruce to interpret at will. Bruce nodded, and Ross left the room, smirking.

* * *

_"How's the unscrambling going?"_

"Actually, Clint," Fury began, "that's why I'm here. We found them."

Thor shot up off of the sofa and strode over to Fury and Pepper. "You have found our comrades?"

"Sort of. We located Stark's reactor, but a quick fly-over and there's nothing there. I'm assuming that they're hidden underground."

"Do we know who _has_ them yet?" Pepper asked, obviously worried that some person from Tony's past decided to pay a visit.

"No, not yet. As their coordinates show no sign of anything, we are still unaware of who we're up against. Clint, do you have any ideas?"

Thinking for a moment, Clint nodded. "Yeah, I've got something." _It's a long shot, but it's something_.

"All right, what is it?"

* * *

Tony was flopped on the ground on his back with no desire to stand, lest the world go spinning again. "Cap, how long till you felt better after this?" he groaned.

"Still not completely better," he replied. Tony let out a dramatic sigh.

Natasha, meanwhile, was pacing around the room and trying not to trip over the men sprawled on the ground. She was stressed out of her mind, because if they got Bruce, what's to say they don't have Clint with them, too? Finally, she ended up catching her foot on Steve and falling over.

"Careful, Nat, what's got you so worked up?" Steve asked. Well, they were already tense, but Natasha was more nervous than she usually let on about.

She almost didn't answer. "What if—where do you think Clint is right now?"

Steve thought carefully before he answered, knowing what it was like to worry about someone you cared about. "I think if he was here, Ross would have let us know. I think he would have had us all together ready to blow up just in case Bruce screwed up. So I don't think he's here. I don't know where he _is_, but I'm pretty sure he's not here."

Natasha nodded. "So Bird Brain might come up with some heroic plan to save us all!" Tony shouted over. "I mean, he'd have to do it without blowing us up, which is nearly impossible, but still!" Natasha rolled her eyes and almost smiled. Even half out of it, Stark still somehow managed to snark off.

Tony was also getting restless. Despite not being able to stand up without keeling over, he was _bored__, _which usually resulted in him breaking something. Unfortunately, there was nothing for him to break, so he started humming. And humming. And would have kept humming if Natasha hadn't given him the evil eye—code for _stop right now before I stab your eyes out with whatever I can find_. He stopped and gave Natasha his trademark smirk.

Even in life-or-death situations, Tony could still snark.

* * *

Bruce stood up, dizzy. Ellings needed blood samples, and he had decided he needed a lot. While obviously Ellings couldn't kill him, he took enough of Bruce's blood to analyze to make him almost pass out.

Bruce was getting ready to snap. Not only was he underground, he was underground with a man who hated his guts and wanted him dead, and had four of his closest friends in a room that could literally blow up. Anyone in their right mind would be pretty stressed.

Speaking of the devil, Ross strode in the door, smiling like he had some sort of inside joke but staring at Bruce with undisguised loathing. "Dr. Banner. Your friends have brought to my attention that you and Mr. Stark have been working on a... _sedative_ for the Hulk, is this correct?" Bruce clenched his teeth and nodded. "Ah, yes. Now, Mr. Ellings, if you would please, show Dr. Banner what you have come up with? Mr. Ellings believes that what he has found is a basic sedative that works on everything, but nothing he has added to it will work on... _you." _he said, looking Bruce up and down. "Would you please tell Mr. Ellings if he at least has the outline correct?"

Bruce walked over to the computer and looked at the formula Ellings had come up with. "How long did this take you?" he asked.

Ellings smiled. "It has only taken us three years, but this knowledge will help us with all sorts of sedatives in the future."

Inside, Bruce smirked. It had taken him and Tony a week and a half to come up with this. "Yes, that's right."

Ross waited for Bruce to continue, and when he didn't, he asked what he needed to know. "What is it missing?"

But Bruce remained silent.

* * *

**So it's a little shorter than some of my chapters, but I'm in the middle of the next one so it _should_ be up this weekend!  
**

**Thanks for reading, and pretty please leave me a review to let me know what y'all think? IT WON'T BITE SO PLEASE REVIEW! See you soon!**


	9. Chapter 9

**So, like I promised, here is chapter 9! I was so worried I wasn't going to have time to finish it this weekend, and I probably should do my homework, but hey, when inspiration strikes, you just have to write!**

**Oh, and MoonyTheAlchemist: no, I haven't seen Rocky Horror Picture Show, but it sounds really funny!**

**Thanks to all my readers for sticking with the story so far, and I hope you like the next chapter!**

* * *

"Well? What's _missing_?" Ross demanded. He slapped Bruce in the face. "May I _remind_ you, that your friends are one button away from being blown to smithereens because of _you_."

Bruce continued his silence.

Ross laughed, but it didn't reach his eyes. "You inhuman _monster_. Can't even save your own friends, not if it means you get hurt. Fine, have it your way. Follow me."

Bruce followed him back down the hallway towards the cell his friends were staying in. With a sign from Ross, Vincent went in and shut the door behind him.

* * *

Gravley flipped his phone shut. He just finished talking to Betty, and now he was getting nervous.

Wes Gravley had met Betty Ross after her father decided that she needed a nice, strong military man for a boyfriend or husband or something along those lines, and had set him up with her for a date. While they had nothing in common, they became very close friends, especially after Bruce had left. Betty saw Gravley as a confidant, and she told him everything. Gravley, who really liked her (not in _that_ way, but as a friend), showed her that she could trust him by not telling her dad anything she said. So, naturally, Betty had often talked about Bruce.

This call had told him that Ross was a little crazy when it came to Bruce Banner. He would stop at nothing to destroy the man he considered a monster, even when all evidence proved otherwise. When he told Betty that Ross had Bruce, she nearly lost it.

"Do whatever you can to keep him safe, _please_. I'm taking the next flight out there, but I can't do anything until I get there. _Please _don't let my father hurt him."

So he agreed, but now he was stuck. He still answered to Vincent, who answered to Ross, and Vincent was obviously on Ross's side as long as that meant he could get his revenge on Tony Stark for whatever he did to him. The only way to help Bruce was to completely flout direct orders.

This was going to be fun.

* * *

The Avengers were not ready for Vincent to walk into the cell, especially considering they thought Tony was done getting beat up for the day. Moving protectively around him, they were more surprised when Vincent grabbed Natasha and yanked her up on her feet.

"Hey!" shouted Tony. "I thought you said you weren't going to hurt them!"

"If Dr. Banner behaves," drawled Vincent, "I _won't_ hurt her."

A rumbling by the wall drew their attention. Turning over towards the wall nearest the door, they saw it seem to rise up, almost like a garage door. What was left in its place was a think glass wall, giving them a view of Bruce and Ross staring inside the cell like they were fish in a bowl. When Ross started to talk, they learned that the glass itself was not soundproof, but the garage-like wall was.

"Now, Dr. Banner, I assume you are human enough to save your friend Miss Romanoff. I will count to three, and you tell me what I'm missing from the formula—" Tony's eyes widened as Bruce glanced over to him, "—or Vincent will shoot your friend."

Bruce paled. He was ready to lose it.

"Bruce..." said Tony.

"Tony, you _can't _expect me to make this choice." He was nearing a breakdown. Bruce could feel his pulse start to beat out of control, and he was starting to breathe hard, but he couldn't lose control. He couldn't, or more than one person would die.

"One," said Ross. Vincent cocked the gun.

"Bruce," Tony said, "if it has to be me or her, let it be her."

"Tony…"

"Two." Vincent placed the gun against Natasha's head. She would have fought back but she feared that Ross would still be willing to blow up the room even if one of his best men was still inside.

"If only one of us can live, Bruce, LET IT BE HER!" Tony shouted desperately.

"Starkanium. The last ingredient is Starkanium."

Tony relaxed, and Vincent dropped Natasha but kept hold of the gun. Ross, on the other hand, was confused. "What the hell is Starkanium?"

Bruce looked at Tony, wondering if he wanted to explain. He did. "Starkanium is an element that I created for my arc reactor. It used to run on palladium, but I found that it was too toxic. I created Starkanium to act the same way palladium does in my reactor, but better and without the negative effects. As I was looking at it's structure, Bruce and I found that it would probably be a suitable substance to knock out the Hulk."

"So then where can we get some?" Ross asked, getting impatient. At this question, Bruce winced.

Tony continued. "We hadn't had time to synthesize any more of it, so all the Starkanium in existence currently resides right here in yours truly," he said as he tapped his finger against the arc reactor, lifting his chin as if daring Ross to try and take it from him.

Ross turned on his radio with Ellings. "Ellings, how long will it take you to make up those formulas before you need the last piece?" Muffled speaking came through. "Got it. The last bit is Starkanium. We'll have it for you by then."

Ross turned to Tony. "Sounds like Ellings will be needing that in a few hours. One of us will come and retrieve it when he's ready." He nodded to Vincent, who pushed his way out of the room while Ross hit the garage-door button, and the Avengers were plunged back into solitude.

* * *

Clint was stressed. They had their plan, but it was a long shot, and based off of too many "ifs." _If_ Thor can find a weak spot on the roof. _If_ Clint can locate an air vent. _If_ the Quinjet gets back there on time. There was too much uncertainty for Clint's liking, but it was all they had, and Clint was determined to get his friends back or go down trying.

The plan was relatively simple. Since Ross probably had plenty of sensors around the area, it would be too risky to send the Quinjet right away. So Clint was going to hitch a ride with Thor and his hammer (thank god Tony wouldn't see him do this), and Thor would drop him on the roof to search for an air vent. Meanwhile, Thor would find a weak spot, hit it with lightning, and jump down to cause some chaos while Clint entered through the air vent and crawled around until he found the team. From there, they'd just have to explore the building to find their way out, because Thor couldn't carry _all_ of them at once, and no one wanted to leave any of them down in the hole. He brought a few spare guns and knives for Natasha and anyone else who wanted one, but he couldn't find Tony's suit-tracker bracelets. He just prayed Tony could get out without needing his suit. Once they had made it in, however, the Quinjet would arrive and wait for them outside, offering back up if they needed it. Unfortunately, it was highly unlikely the back up would be useful, because none of them could jump down a huge hole like Thor could without hurting or killing themselves, and going through the vents like Clint would take too long. Really, they were useless, but they needed a way to get out of the area, plus it made Fury feel better to offer his help.

Sliding the guns and knives into their slots and grabbing his bow, he jumped onto Thor's back (he was never going to live this down). "All right, Lightning, let's get going.

* * *

**Yay, Clint and Thor to the rescue! So, the story is getting close to the end (don't worry, there are still at least three or four chapters left), and I'm so excited!**

**Leave me a review to let me know what you think, please!**


	10. Chapter 10

**So I'm going to apologize in ahead of time, this chapter here is sort of choppy. It's all build up, because they aren't all together yet, and some things are still in the making, but it will jump from point of view to point of view in a matter of a few lines. I know it's sort of annoying, but the way I'm writing it, I can't put everything about one character in one spot and then switch point of views—it sort of has to go in order. Again, I'm sorry if this annoys any of you.**

**THANKS FOR THE AWESOME REVIEWS I LOVE ALL OF YOU!**

* * *

"Tony, why did you make Bruce tell Ross about the Starkanium?" Natasha asked Tony quietly.

"You think I'd have let him shoot you, Spidey?" Tony grinned, trying to act nonchalant. "Besides, if Bruce hadn't told, not only would you have died, the rest of us would have been shot, too, if Bruce kept refusing."

"And you're okay with dying?" Steve asked. He took Tony's silence as an answer.

After a pause, Tony replied so quietly that Steve almost swore he imagined it. "Better me than you."

* * *

Ross marched triumphantly to the labs with the information. He had left Bruce with Vincent while he went to go talk to Ellings. He knew, he _knew_ that he could make Bruce cave. And now he had everything he needed.

"Ellings! I've got it. I need you to make up two batches of that basic formula for me."

"Two?" asked Ellings, perplexed. "Why two?"

Ross grinned. He had _finally_ gotten what he wanted, and he had gotten more than he had ever hoped for.

A chance to end Bruce Banner.

* * *

Bruce felt like throwing up. It was becoming a usual feeling for the past day.

No matter what he did, all of his actions ended up nearly killing his closest friends. He almost got Clint killed, he almost got Natasha shot, and now Tony was on death row just waiting for his reactor to be taken. Not to mention, if any of his friends misbehaved, they would all be blown to pieces without a chance to fight back.

They were completely screwed. Even if Clint _did_ manage to somehow find them AND get in, the rest of them could still be blown up in Boom Town.

And he couldn't even _try_ and do anything right now because Vincent was just sitting there, staring at him, with this gleeful grin on his face, as if he was _glad_ Tony was going to die. It made Bruce want to lose it right there and rip him to shreds, and he would have if his friends's lives weren't on the line.

* * *

Gravley walked quickly down the hall towards the laboratory, hoping to gain information on how much progress Ross had made. He didn't know what he was going to _do_ with the information, but it was good to have, wasn't it?

Banging through the doorway, he saw Ross talking excitedly with Ellings.

"Gravley! Good news my friend! We've got it!" Ross said.

"How long," he asked, trying to calculate in his head how long it would be until Betty got there and could hopefully subdue her father.

"Not long at all, only a few hours at the most," said Ross. "We learned that the stuff in Stark's reactor is what we need, but we haven't taken it yet. You can go feed them, if you want."

It was sort of fitting. A last meal, of sorts. But now Gravley was becoming even more nervous.

More than one life was on the line.

* * *

Tony finds the whole "last meal" thing ironic, especially because whoever dropped off their food managed to get something a tad bit nicer than everything they had been having before. It wasn't much, but it was his first cheeseburger since he'd been kidnapped.

He can tell that Steve and Natasha are getting antsy and upset, and it's never good to have an antsy and upset assassin because it means she's one step closer to murdering someone, anyone, to get out of whatever situation they're in.

He's actually calm. He knows there's no way out, for him at least, so he figures do what they say and hopefully his friends will get out better than he did. Huh. Maybe he's willing to lay down on the wire more often than he thought.

* * *

Betty's plane just landed at the airport, and she scrambled off as quickly as she could. She turned on her phone to find a text from Wes: _Stark's going to die, and Banner might too_.

She groaned in frustration. Couldn't her father leave these people alone for once?

Picking up her bag, she hurried down to the rental car stop, slamming her credit card down on the counter and asking for anything they had. She was running out of time.

* * *

Pepper sat tensely in the Quinjet with Fury, along with Jane and Darcy, who had come over the day she found out that Tony was missing. Jane was ecstatic about seeing Thor again, since he hadn't had time to come see her when he first came down to join the Avengers. Darcy, meanwhile, was having a heated debate with one of the crew members over who knows what, but Pepper could tell that both she and Jane were nervous about this trip, too. While Thor wasn't kidnapped, he still had to go _in_ to the super-secret lair to get the rest of them out.

But it was that or leave them there.

* * *

They made it over the drop zone. It was starting to rain, but Clint didn't care. Thor jumped right before he did and plummeted towards the ground ready to wreak some havoc. Seconds later, Clint leapt from the plane as well.

He fell through the sky for a few moments and then pulled the string on his parachute. It opened with a swish, and Clint was caught in the air and slowly falling down. Meanwhile, a large _boom _signaled that Thor had made impact and was about to rip his way into the building.

It was time to bring their friends home.

* * *

General Ross walked through the halls feeling victorious with Ellings at his side, a loaded dart gun at his hip, and a real gun in his hand. The batch was ready for Tony's reactor, and he was planning to get it right now.

He found Bruce and Vincent standing by the garage-wall of the cell. The Avengers didn't know it was a one-way wall, so they could look in on them. Bruce was staring sadly at his best friend when Ross walked in.

"Dr. Banner, would you like to come with us?" Ross asked. He knew he wouldn't _want_to, but Bruce couldn't leave Tony alone now—not after Bruce had condemned him by coming here, by getting involved in his friend's life in general. Bruce nodded, his face tight. They unlatched the door and the four of them walked into the cell.

Just as a huge Norse God came crashing through the roof.

* * *

**So there is chapter 10! I'M SORRY, BUT I WARNED YOU AHEAD OF TIME IT WOULD BE ANNOYING. This has to be my least favorite chapter, it had to have been a pain to read (maybe review it to let me know?) But anyway, I'm really excited that all of you are still reading my story. Thanks so much for sticking with me, and if you haven't yet, go check out my oneshot-but-maybe-a-series-of-oneshots-but-haven't-decided-yet story, Make Yourselves At Home. Thanks again for reading AND PRETTY PLEASE LEAVE ME A REVIEW TO LET ME KNOW HOW I'M DOING?**


	11. Chapter 11

**Ohio's weather is so weird. No snow days in December, or January, or even February, but once March rolls around, hey, let's have a snow day! Anyways, in honor of this snow day, I have had time to write the next chapter of this story, so woohoo!**

**Thank you all for such awesome reviews, and I'm glad that you at least sort of liked that last chapter. I promise, this one is much more exciting and action-packed!**

**Still don't own Marvel :(**

* * *

No one was more surprised to see Thor than General Ross. In fact, he was not pleased at all.

"What the he—" he started. He was cut off when Thor stomped over to him, picked him up, and threw him through the garage door wall. The glass shattered and the wall crumbled as Ross was forced through to the other side. Thor moved towards the hole and climbed through in order to make sure that Ross was really restrained. He never noticed Vincent, though.

As soon as Ross had been thrown through the wall, Vincent moved. He moved as quickly as he could towards Tony and jumped on top of him, knocking him to the ground. He pulled out a gun and held it to Tony's head, letting Steve, Bruce, and Natasha know that if they took one wrong step, he'd shoot. He wouldn't hesitate, and they knew that. They didn't know why he wouldn't hesitate, but as Vincent had been particularly vicious with Tony, they knew he wouldn't anyway.

"I am going to kill you, Tony Stark," he said viciously. "Just like you did to my father."

Tony looked incredibly confused. "When did I kill your father?"

"Oh, of _course_, you don't even remember him," Vincent spat. "Think. Think back to before you were an Avenger, back _before_ you were Iron Man. Think back to a certain little cave where you tore down the walls and burned everyone inside just to save your own life. _My father_ was in that cave, and you murdered him!" He was shouting now, nearly deafening Tony because Vincent's face was only inches away from his own.

Still holding the gun to Tony's head and ignoring the desperate protests of Natasha and Steve, he used his other hand and reached down towards Tony's chest, unlocking the arc reactor and ripping it out of place. "This thing here is the reason my father is dead. And now it will be the reason you are, too, along with your monster of a friend."

Tony could feel his chest tightening already as the shrapnel moved closer, and his ears were ringing, almost to the point that he didn't hear the gunshot.

The Avengers screamed, thinking it was Tony who was shot. They were all the more surprised when they saw Vincent slump down on top of Tony, bullet hole in his head.

Natasha wasted no time. She ran over to Tony, pushed Vincent away, and picked up the arc reactor. "Tony, listen to me, I need you to tell me how to put it back in. _Tony_, how do I put it back?" Tony managed to grate out an answer that he hoped made some sort of sense to Natasha, which apparently it did because a few seconds later the pressure in his chest was relieved and the reactor was back home, glowing in his chest. He looked around and saw Natasha and Steve looking relieved, and Bruce attempting to calm himself down after seeing his best friend nearly murdered in front of his eyes.

Thor walked in a few seconds later. "I believe the General is unconscious, but he has alerted the building. We will have to fight our way out."

Tony struggled to his feet as Steve pointed out the obvious. "Okay, but we don't have any weapons. I mean, you do, and Bruce can Hulk, but we need to help you guys, too."

Just then, a clatter by the side of the wall turned everyone towards a pair of feet emerging from the air vent. Clint pulled himself out of the vent while complaining about how it's nearly impossible to shoot someone through the bars of a vent. "I would have felt better using my bow, but there is no _way_ an arrow can fit through a vent without damaging the end of it." He then pulled out his stock of weapons, passing a loaded gun to Steve, Natasha, and Tony. "Let's get out of here."

Thor led the way through the hole in Boom Town, and they all climbed out into the building. "Do any of you know the way from here?"

"No," said Steve, "we were unconscious when we arrived here, but I'd say we are probably underground, so we should look for some stairs and work our way up." A glance at Clint confirmed that they were indeed underground.

"Uh, guys?" Clint commented uneasily. "Ross is gone."

And he was. There was no sign of Ross anywhere, so either he was hiding, or he had gone to mobilize his defenses against the Avengers.

After glancing around a bit, Clint pointed out what looked like an elevator shaft, and a big one at that. Space-wise, it looked like it could hold all of them. The question was whether it could hold their weight. One by one, they loaded on to the elevator, and as each of them got on, they all breathed a sigh of relief that it didn't collapse. Once they all made it on, Thor hit the button, and slowly, the elevator moved up and up and up. It probably moved slower than it should have, as it was very near its maximum weight, but praise everything, it didn't drop them. The way they were arranged, Clint, Steve, and Natasha were in the front, Bruce and Tony were protected in the middle, and Thor was in the back.

Bruce was getting incredibly jumpy. While he could easily "Hulk-out" and smash their way through the building, he really didn't want to. And the others could tell, which was why they were doing everything in their power to try and prevent him from needing to.

The elevator dinged, signifying that they made it to the top floor. Stepping out, they realized that the elevator had actually led them outside. What Clint and Thor had originally thought of as some sort of exhaust exit was actually the top of the elevator.

About a hundred yards in front of them was the exit gate, already unlocked and opened. It was way too easy, and they should have noticed that. They didn't. Instead, the Avengers took off running towards the gate when a gunshot broke the silence. Tony cried out and brought his hand to his thigh, and he pulled it away covered in red. This time he really had been shot.

The Avengers swung around and saw Ross and his men emerging from behind the elevator, all brandishing guns and aiming to kill. Bruce looked Ross in the eye and finally lost it, missing the grin that came over the man's face as he finally gave in to the urge to let go and smashsmashsmashsma—

He was in the middle of transforming when it happened. Bruce was growing bigger and bigger and bigger when Ross pulled out a dart gun, took aim, and hit the half-Bruce-half-Hulk form in the neck. And it was like he deflated. Bruce just stopped in the middle of transforming and suddenly began to revert back. He turned back to his normal size and dropped to the ground like a stone.

Tony knelt down next to his friend. "What did you do?" he shouted at Ross. "What the HELL did you do?"

Ross calmly walked over towards them as he pulled out a shotgun. "Palladium, Mr. Stark. As you told me earlier, you switched to Starkanium in your arc reactor because palladium was too toxic. Starkanium would have been perfect for sedating the Hulk, but, as you can see, palladium has proved much more useful for killing it."

And he took aim at Tony's head. Tony almost laughed—this was the second or third time in a _day_ that he'd had a gun pointed at his head. None of the other Avengers could focus on him at the moment, seeing as they were all busy fighting off their own opponents. Slowly, trying to avoid being noticed, Tony reached for the gun at his side.

And then, the third unexpected shot of the day went off, coming from Ross's men. Tony flinched, but it was Ross who got hit in his right arm, preventing him from shooting Tony. Tony stood up and socked Ross in the head, hard, with the butt of the gun, and Ross collapsed, unconscious.

Looking up, he saw one of the men from the compound—_Gravley_, he thinks—running towards him and Bruce. Kneeling down beside Bruce, he looked up at Tony. "Is he going to be okay?"

"If I can make the antidote and get it to him fast enough, then yes," Tony said, frantically trying to come up with ways to get the supplies he needed to fix this. "Can you call them off?"

Gravley nodded. Calling out some military code, Ross's men retreated while looking very confused. The rest of the team ran over to Tony and Bruce.

"Tony, what can we do?" asked Clint.

"How far away is the Quinjet, if you even brought it?" Tony asked in reply.

"It's about two miles from here, we didn't want to tip them off that we were coming."

Tony swore. "There's no way I can get into their lab here, so—"

_*BOOM*_

An explosion cut through the conversation. No one knew who did it, but someone back downstairs had blown up Boom Town. Ross obviously didn't plan on how far the explosion would reach, because some of the ground blew up even up here. The explosion was nearest to Natasha and Steve, and they went flying through the air. More graceful than Steve, Natasha managed to land in a roll, but Steve landed flat on his back. Thankfully he wasn't injured, but as Natasha was blown sky high, she knocked her head against the elevator shaft and landed with a concussion.

The sound of an approaching car drew everyone's attention. It flew through the gate and rolled to a stop next to the team. Out of the driver's seat popped none other than Betty Ross. Her eyes were immediately drawn to Bruce. "Oh my god, oh my g—"

Tony interrupted her. "Betty, can we all fit in that car? We _have_ to get to our Quinjet, about two miles away from here. Clint can tell you where to go." She nodded, and Thor lifted Bruce into the back seat while helping Tony in next to him. They all looked at Tony with concern for his shot leg, but before they ever got a chance to ask anything his glare shut them up. Tony's priority was saving Bruce, he didn't care how much blood he was losing.

Natasha climbed in next to him in the back and said simply, "I'm going to wrap your leg." Tony knew not to argue with Natasha, and as there was nothing he could do for Bruce at the exact moment, he let her. Even with a concussion, she knew what she was doing.

Clint popped into the front seat next to Betty, and Steve and Thor somehow managed to fit into the trunk without upsetting the balance of the car. Betty whirled the car around and floored the gas.

* * *

It was incredibly obvious that Betty took no heed of any speed limit whatsoever, even though they were on some skinny and dangerous road in the middle of nowhere. More than once they almost drove off the road, but Betty maintained a steady eighty miles an hour. A few minutes later, even though it felt like years, she pulled up next to the Quinjet. They all pushed the doors open, and Thor picked up Bruce to carry him to the hospital. The jet's door opened, and Fury and Pepper appeared. They took one look at Bruce and moved right out of the way.

When Pepper saw Tony, she ran towards him. "OhmygodTony, we have to get you to the hospital right now!" she exclaimed.

"Pepper, I can't just yet," he said as he pushed past her and marched purposefully towards the jet's lab (as well as anyone with a bullet wound to the leg _could_ march). Honestly, she was surprised he was even able to walk, but it was obvious he was on an adrenaline high.

Clint and Natasha followed him to the labs, ready to bring the antidote out to Bruce and to watch Tony just in case he keeled over from blood loss. Which was a highly likely possibility, as Tony could already see the edges of his vision beginning to narrow, but shook it off anyway to focus. Focus focus focus. He had to help Bruce right now. He couldn't let him down.

Even though Natasha had a concussion, she knew her injury was far less severe. Plus, she hated getting looked at. So she followed Tony down to the lab, despite the disapproving looks Clint threw her way. The two of them only got there a few moments after Tony, but he was already moving frantically about the lab and starting to boil something on a hot plate. Throwing things into it with feverish movements, he probably managed to finish the antidote in record time.

About five minutes later, he turned to Natasha and Clint. "It just has to boil for about two minutes, and then it's done," he said. The two of them breathed a sigh of relief. Bruce was going to be okay. "The doctors just have to inject it into his neck, preferably near where the dart hit him, but as long as it's on his neck, it'll... be... fine..."

And maybe it was the blood loss. Or the trauma of nearly having his best friend die right before his eyes. Or the impact of having the arc reactor removed from its place. Or even the side effects of whatever they had done to torture information out of him. It was probably a combination of all three. But, as predicted, Tony's knees gave out, his vision tunneled, and he fell to the ground and passed out.

Clint scooped Tony up. "Nat, I'm taking him to the hospital wing. There's only a couple minutes left on that, so you'll have to put it in a syringe and bring it up when it's done." Natasha nodded, and suppressed a smile as Clint left the lab carrying Tony bridal-style.

When the timer went off three and a half minutes later, Natasha already had a syringe out and ready. She carefully picked it up and poured it into the syringe, and took off running. How she was able to run with a concussion, no one will ever be able to say. But she ran down the halls and into Bruce's room where she handed off the syringe and nearly passed out with relief when she saw the formula shoot into Bruce's neck. He was going to be okay.

* * *

**Well, this was an _incredibly_ long chapter, but I thought it turned out pretty good! Hopefully this makes up for the choppy one you all just had to read...**

**Anyways... I would _love love love_ if you would leave me a review to let me know what you think! PLLEEAAASSEE?**

**Thanks for reading! :)**


	12. Chapter 12

**Woohoo! New update! I'm so glad you all liked the last chapter, that was sort of the major action scene of the story, and I believe all that is left is mostly either fluff or angsty stuff (or maybe something in-between). Anyway, they won't be captured again. Or will they? Anyway, here's the next update!**

* * *

Fury sat in the debriefing room with the three conscious Avengers listening to their narration of the incident. As Steve was the only one present who could relate what happened while the three who were kidnapped were _in_ the compound, his story was considerably longer. Fury didn't like it one bit. Apparently, the three of them were lucky to be alive, specifically Tony, who apparently got much more beaten up than the other two. Fury sighed. He could tell they were getting antsy. "Okay, okay," he relented exasperatedly, "just sign these and you can go." They reached forward eagerly and then hustled out of the room towards the hospital rooms that were housing their friends.

Fury suppressed a smile. The Avengers had created their own dysfunctional, crazy family. He could still remember the days when Steve and Tony came close to murdering each other and everyone stared at one another—Bruce especially—like they were going to snap. Now, everyone lived in Tony's tower, and while they all had their own floors, they all shared one together.

He knew it was a good idea to keep faith in them.

* * *

Bruce blinked groggily awake, shaking the fog from his mind, when he realized that he was in a hospital bed. He's _never_ in a hospital bed. He tried to sit up, but his movements were heavy and sluggish, and all he could manage was lifting his head.

"Friend Banner, how are you feeling?" A failed attempt at a whisper asked.

Bruce groaned in response. "Like I got run over by a semi going eighty on the highway," he said. He could literally _feel_ the confusion radiating off of Thor across the room but the god refrained from asking any questions. "How are the others?"

"Clint is in with Natasha, who has a concussion, and Steve and Pepper are checking in on Tony, who has not yet awoken."

Bruce searched his mind for what happened to Tony. "Oh god, he got _shot_, is he okay?"

Thor nodded. "Of course. He is just resting." Bruce breathed a sigh of relief. All he remembered was Tony getting shot, starting to transform, and then everything was blank until he woke up.

"What happened?"

Thor hesitated. "I think it would be better if someone else explained, as I am not entirely sure how it all works." Bruce nodded. Whatever it was, it landed him in the hospital, so it had to be bad.

* * *

"TONY STARK HOW DARE YOU GO AND GET YOURSELF SHOT" Pepper shrieked. Tony winced. It had all been going so well. He had woken up to Pepper's face and they had their happy reunion and it lasted all of five minutes when Pepper got ahold of herself and lost it.

"Pepper—"

"And before that you were _kidnapped_, Tony, _kidnapped!_" She was getting more and more hysterical, and Tony could tell Steve was getting more and more uncomfortable watching the pair of them, and Tony didn't think and just acted and pulled Pepper against him (as well as he could in a hospital bed).

"Pepper. I swear, I'm _okay_. I can also promise I did nothing wrong but take the team to a falafel restaurant. _Trust me_, it's okay," he said soothingly. He refrained from mentioning anything about how he almost had his reactor ripped out of his chest, because he knew she'd find out about that at some point but he hoped she'd have cooled off a bit before she did.

Suddenly, the air vent popped open and a shock of red hair came poking through. "Did Clint get here yet?" asked Natasha.

Pepper and Steve just blinked at her. Tony looked surprised. "No, not yet," he said. "And isn't it normally Bird Brain who's climbing through the vents, not you?"

"And Nat, don't you have a _concussion_?" asked Steve.

Natasha rolled her eyes. "It's a _mild_ concussion. The morons we call doctors wouldn't let me out of the room, so Clint said he'd cause a _distraction_ for me so I could slip through the vents and he said he'd meet me here."

"Well, Spidey, he's not here yet, so you might as well take a seat," Tony said, nodding towards the large couch he had had brought into this hospital room which was slowly but surely becoming _his_ hospital room. She plopped down next to Pepper and they started talking. With the looks they were shooting at Steve and Tony, Tony knew they were talking about them.

"Here we are!" A booming voice announced as Thor wheeled Bruce's hospital bed into the room. Tony grinned. He was just grateful that his cure had worked, considering he had made it while he was barely coherent.

"Hey there, Jolly Green, how are ya doing?" he asked.

"_Bored_," said Bruce with a smile. "I've never been in a hospital bed this long before."

"SEE?" Tony exclaimed, gesturing towards Bruce and addressing everyone in the room. "SEE? THIS is why I get bored! It is NOT just me!"

"Yes, but Bruce is also not going to start trying to build robots out of the hospital bed," Pepper added with an exasperated grin. That had been done. Twice.

Suddenly, they all heard shouting down the hall. The room's door banged open again, and Clint appeared, his hands covered in feathers and orange paint and his head soaking wet. He hurriedly locked the door. "I was never here," he said.

* * *

Fury turned back to the door as he heard it creak open. Betty Ross walked in. "Ms. Ross?"

"Hello, Director Fury," she said. "You wanted to see me?"

"Yes." He sighed. "I really hate to have to do this to you." She looked at him with nervous eyes. "Ms. Ross, I am completely aware of the feelings you have for Dr. Banner. And trust me when I tell you that I don't find them a bad thing at all. It's just..." He took a deep breath. "Betty, I'm going to be frank with you. Your father is still out there. He wants Bruce more than ever now, and that puts our entire team at risk, even though putting Bruce at risk would be enough. Despite how much I _don't_ want to have to separate you, your being here put my team at a much higher risk. You are a direct link to Ross, despite you not wanting anything to do with him, and I can't have that. I will have to ask you to leave."

Betty looked near tears. She had just found Bruce again, and he was slipping through her fingers. "Do I get to say goodbye?" Fury hesitated. "Please?"

"I'd say yes, but I'm under the impression that Bruce doesn't know you are here at the moment. I don't think he ever knew you were here."

She nodded. "Okay. Okay, I'll go," she said. "But—but can you give him this?" she asked, reaching out onto his desk and scribbling a quick note. Glancing at it quickly so as to not invade their privacy, Fury nodded. Just because Bruce couldn't see the girl he loved didn't mean he shouldn't know what she did for him.

Betty walked towards the door. Hand on the knob, she turned back. "If you ever need me—for information, for help, just for Bruce—let me know, okay?"

And she walked out the door.

* * *

**I feel like a terrible person. Now Bruce won't get to see Betty. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm not changing what I wrote, but I'm still sorry.**

**Anyways, guys, I am pretty sure that after this there are only two chapters left, yay! Almost there! One of those chapters happens to be an epilogue similar to my first chapter.**

**I am also thinking about doing a couple one-shots referring to the mentions above where Tony tried to build robots out of the hospital beds and Clint's prank. Let me know which one(s) you think I should if I do in your reviews! Thanks!**


	13. Chapter 13

**Hey there! So it's been a little while, I know :( I've been so incredibly busy with stuff, plus I've been trying to update both my stories at once but I only got time for one last weekend, sooo. Here is chapter 13! Warning ahead of time, this chapter is a lot less plot-based, and a bit more angst-y. Hope y'all like it!**

* * *

Bruce was sitting in his hospital bed when he got Betty's letter. Fury had dropped it off just before the medical staff called for no more visitors to the patients, so he had barely caught him.

"Here," he said, handing the letter to him. "This is for you." He looked at Bruce with a sorry expression filled with regret that he had no choice about whatever the content of the letter was. Bruce waited until he had walked out of the room to open it.

His stomach lurched when he pulled out a folded sheet of paper with extremely familiar handwriting on it.

_Dear Bruce,_

_Hi there. So I have no idea if anyone is going to tell you what went on when we got you out, but I wanted to let you know that I was there. I didn't just let my father take you. When I found out, I got there as fast as I could, but you had already been shot with that godawful substance. I thought you died, Bruce. I thought you were dead and I was too late to do anything about it. So you have to imagine how relieved I was when Tony said you were still alive and that he could fix you. I have no idea how we all fit into the car I rented, but we did, and we got you to the hospital on time and Tony did whatever he had to do to save you._

_So you're probably wondering why I'm not there now. Why, after finally finding you again, I only left you this letter, rather than finally get to see you myself again. I want to be there, Bruce. I don't think you understand how badly I want to be there with you right now. I've missed you so much. But Director Fury talked to me about what I might cause if I stayed— my father still wants you, Bruce, more than ever. He's not dead, and he's not going to rest until someone makes him. But if I'm there, it doesn't matter how much information I can give to help find him. If I'm there, the risk of him getting to you again is so much higher than if I wasn't there. And I'm not going to risk that. Fury didn't give me a choice in the matter, but now that I think about it, I would have left anyway. My family has hurt you too much for me to cause the same thing to happen again._

_I'm sorry I didn't get to see you again. I would have stayed until you woke up so I could say goodbye, but I figured it would be easier if you didn't know I was there. I told SHIELD if they ever needed anything, they could call, so I really hope this isn't goodbye. I hope I did the right thing for you Bruce. I still love you._

_Yours,_

_Betty_

Betty. Betty had _been_ there, and she didn't, couldn't stay to see him. Bruce's hands were shaking by the time he finished the letter. He didn't realize how badly he'd been hoping that he'd get to see her again, that she'd somehow find her way to Ross and help save them. And she did, but he didn't even get to see her.

* * *

In a week, all the Avengers were cleared to go back to the Tower. Pepper had organized a party, and even Fury had shown up for an hour to celebrate. It wasn't an incredibly exciting party. There was lots and lots of food, but Tony was still on crutches (that he never really used), and Bruce wasn't up for long amounts of partying anyway. In fact, both of them were missing from the room at the moment. Bruce had retreated to the labs almost as soon as the party had started, and Tony went looking for him when he noticed he was gone.

Tony limped his way down the stairs without using the crutches, only using him once he got to the bottom because he knew that Bruce liked to yell at him when he didn't use them. He punched in the code and pushed the door to the lab open. He looked around and saw Bruce hunched over at his laptop, typing away and using the holograms to simulate something or other that he didn't realize Tony was about to interrupt.

"Hey," said Tony, pushing the top of the laptop down to get Bruce's attention. "You know there's a party upstairs, right?"

Bruce rubbed his eyes tiredly. "You know the Other Guy doesn't like parties."

"_Yes_," Tony huffed exasperatedly, "but the party just started. He should be able to give you an hour." Bruce sighed. "You don't want to talk to anyone right now?" Bruce shook his head, and Tony took a seat next to him. "Well, we don't have to talk," he said.

He watched as Bruce turned the holograms back on and started moving things around. Tony realized that Bruce was playing with a simulation of the substance that almost killed him. Of course he'd be interested in that—it requires a lot to nearly take out a Hulk.

"I had hoped that when I showed up he would have let the rest of you go. It wasn't your fight, it was mine." Bruce startled Tony with the sudden confession.

Tony leveled a glare at Bruce. "And you expected us to just walk away. Bruce, you can't just walk away from family. If it HAD happened the way you hoped it would have, you think we would have just left you there? I can sure as hell tell you right now that once we got out we would have marched right back over there and blown up everything in the way of getting you back because you. Are. Our. Family. Bruce. For good or for bad, we will stick together. And you can forget everything Ross has _ever_ tried to tell you, because you are _not_ a monster, no matter how hard he tries to make you believe it."

"But don't you get it, Tony? I AM a monster. Whether or not I'm a good person or a bad person, I am still a monster, and nothing is going to change that."

"Then doesn't that make us all monsters?" Tony paused, trying to grasp for the right words. "Bruce. Steve was a soldier. He _killed_ people. Clint and Natasha are assassins. _They've_ killed people. Thor is a god who used to like to kill for fun. I killed _way_ more people than I care to count, even if it was sort of indirect. We are _all_ monsters inside, Bruce, and just because yours happens to be a bit more visible doesn't make you any more of a monster than the rest of us. But we're not all bad. You are a good person, Bruce. Don't forget that."

Bruce was silent for a while. "I never thanked you. For saving my life," he said.

Tony grinned. "Please. You have saved my life _way_ more times than I can count. I would have owed you even if you _weren't _my best friend." He dropped the phrase so casually that Bruce didn't think Tony realized how much it meant to him. "Now, are you going to come up and be social?" Bruce smiled, nodded, and allowed Tony to pull him upstairs towards the party.

* * *

**Yay! A sort of happy ending to an incredibly angst-y chapter. Let me know what you all think! All that's left is the epilogue, so we're almost done! Please review, you have no idea how happy it makes me!**


	14. Chapter 14

**Hey guys, we made it! This is officially the final chapter/funny epilogue that you have all been promised which will be incredibly similar to the first chapter, just to close out the story. It'll be short, I'm warning you now. Enjoy!**

* * *

"Tony, I don't think we're all going to fit in your car," Steve said warily, eyeing the vehicle that Tony had chosen to transport them all to wherever he was taking them.

"Oh, yes we will, Cap! We just have to squeeze," he said with a wink, grinning when he got Steve to blush.

The car he pulled up only had five seats, if you counted the tiny middle seat. Tony hopped right into the driver's seat without looking back, much to the dismay of everyone else, and Natasha glared at everyone as she walked towards the car and purposefully dropped herself into the passenger's seat. The remaining four men looked at one another awkwardly, and finally Clint grinned. He whispered his plan to the others, and they nodded.

Bruce got into the tiny middle seat because, while his Hulk-form was huge, he wasn't as imposing as a normal man. Steve and Thor took the other sides, leaving Clint by himself outside.

Natasha turned to the window to smirk at him when she saw that he was walking towards _her_ seat. Not realizing his intentions until it was too late, Clint opened the passenger side door and sat down on top of Natasha. "All right, Tony, we're set to go," he said smugly.

"Clint—can't—breathe," Natasha stuttered. Clint laughed. "I'm not moving, unless you want to sit on top of me." Natasha refused to agree to that, so Clint remained on Natasha's lap for the drive. Which may have been a blessing to Natasha, actually, because that meant she didn't have to see Tony's horrendous driving, even though she could feel Clint wince every time Tony cut it close. Which was almost the entire drive.

After twenty minutes of driving (a time that definitely _should_ have been thirty or thirty five), Tony pulled his car to a stop and everyone piled out of the car.

"Tony, where are we now?" asked Natasha. "Because last time you surprised us with a location we ended up getting gassed and caged," she said dryly.

"Yes, I'm _aware_," retorted Tony, "but this time I've got JARVIS hooked up to _all_ the security cameras, plus all six of us are here, so I'd love to see someone try and take down the Hulk and the Norse God of Thunder." Natasha rolled her eyes. "Besides," he continued, "I think we all need some _team bonding_ time." The grin on his face made everyone nervous.

"And what do you plan on having us do?" Bruce asked.

Tony gestured to the building in front of them. "Go carting!" he exclaimed gleefully. He watched excitedly as he saw the competitive smirks come across every single teammate's face, and he _knew_ it was going to be fun.

In the end, everyone but Tony won once, who won twice ("even though he CHEATED," Clint argues). Of the seven races, they crashed nine go-carts, blew up two barrels of something, electrocuted another go-cart (Thor), and got Bruce to come perilously close to Hulking-out in the middle of the track.

And none of them had ever had more fun.

* * *

**THE END! Yup, guys, it's over :( Anyways, I hope you all liked the story. I know I loved writing it. I just want to thank you all one last time for sticking with it, and for all of you who reviewed my story, you have a special place in my heart :) (ESPECIALLY those of you who reviewed every chapter, you have no idea how excited it made me to see your names pop up again.)**

**So for those of you reading my other stories, you know I have one-two chapters left of Make Yourselves At Home (which if you haven't read, go do that). **

**I am also pleased to announce my next project: ****A two-part story about Clint and Natasha detailing their first mission together and their last one before joining the Avengers (TITLE COMING SOON). Hope you'll read it!**

**-VB**


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